Sunday, 8 June 2014

#39 22 JUMP STREET

If you've seen the first 21 Jump Street film, you'll know what to expect, in fact this film goes out of its way to rift on everything from the first film and the fact it's a sequel, while making fun of itself in the process and when it's funny, it is exceeding laugh-out-loud funny, thanks in no small part to the charms of Channing and Jonah who share a likeable and easy chemistry.

The plot sees the two heroes sent to university to investigate another campus drug and that's it. The actual plot or mission is so thin you can see through it and it comes as no surprise as it plays out. But it's not the procedural plot that brings you to a Jump Street film it's watching Jonah and Channing acting the fools in pursuit of a criminal, while the whole university seems to know they're undercover cops and far too old to be students. And the crazy thing is, whereas this sort of thing sounds horribly unfunny it isn't, it's anything but! And while it never quite achieves the first film's high notes, it's still a guarantee that if you loved the first film you'll love this this outing too! Plus Adding to the fun is Ice Cube who gets a bigger role and some great laughs too.

The only thing that lets this film down is the plot or lack of it. About half way through the film, the plot, sort of fizzles out and for a while the film drifts, waiting for the third act to start and our heroes, who've naturally separated, to get their groove back and once they do the film gets back up to speed, building to a funny resolution and a terrifically funny fist fight between Hill and villain! Plus there's a lovely end credit sequence which should hopefully put pay to any further films, although that said, I wouldn't mind another go-around with these guys.

Certainly not the funniest film ever made, but definitely the funniest film of the year so far, and a million times funnier than the truly awful Million Way to Die in the West!

In a nutshell, this is a highly likeable, enjoyable and bloody funny film.